VIEWPOINTS
/IT’S NOT TOO LATE TO SAVE NELSON PARK
AND ROBERTS ELEMENTARY SCHOOL ANNEX
Carol reardon.
by Carol Reardon
(click images to enlarge)
This fall the BC Utilities Commission will decide whether to issue a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity allowing BC Hydro to build a 10-storey deep underground "West End Substation" on the Lord Roberts Elementary School Annex property.
BC Hydro will dig trenches through the rest of Nelson Park to create cable corridors connecting the Nelson Park hydroelectric substation with the existing substation at Cathedral Square on Dunsmuir Street and a new aboveground substation that is being built in an industrial area in East Vancouver north of Hastings Street. If approved, the West End Substation will take five years to complete at an estimated cost of $1 billion dollars. The Lord Roberts Annex will be demolished to allow for the construction of the substation. Up to 83 trees will be removed from Nelson Park, including the trees on the Lord Roberts Annex property. BC Hydro has asked the BC Utilities Commission to issue a decision on October 30, 2026.
The BC Utilities Commission has started its public hearing on BC Hydro's application. The deadline for applying for Intervenor status has passed, but the BC Utilities Commission will be accepting letters of concern from residents, groups and organizations until August 4, 2026.
DO WE NEED ANOTHER SUBSTATION?
Dal Grauer Substation. (Carol Reardon Photos)
The BC Hydro proposal to build another substation in Downtown Vancouver has been prompted by two things. First, the need to replace the aging Dal Grauer Substation on Burrard Street. Secondly, the continuous growth in the downtown peninsula.
It has been the policy of the City of Vancouver for the past 40 years to squeeze more and more people into the downtown peninsula rather than allow any densification of the remaining 80 percent of the city that still largely consists of suburban neighbourhoods. The West End itself is at the front end of another wave of population densification. The West End Community Plan allows for the addition of about 10,000 more people in high density developments like the Butterfly and the redevelopment of the St. Paul's Hospital site, both in close proximity to Nelson Park. The city is also entertaining the possibility of allowing more data centres to locate downtown. In these circumstances, BC Hydro probably does need to build another substation to service the downtown area. The question for the BC Utilities Commission is whether it is necessary and publicly convenient to locate the West End Substation in a public park with a school, in a community that is already underserved by our government institutions in terms of park space, playgrounds and schools.
SHOULD BC HYDRO BE TARGETING AN URBAN PARK AND SCHOOL?
The West End is home to about 50,000 people. It lacks local park space in the interior of the neighbourhood. Nelson Park is one of only two interior parks, if you include Barclay Square. It's designated as the local park for 20,000 West End residents living within a 10-minute walk of this green space. It used to be a patch of grass until it underwent a major revitalization and redevelopment in 2007/2008. Now it is a jewel that provides an exceptional canopy of mature trees and services the broader West End community with its off-leash dog park, the Farmers Market, and of course the school and its playground which also serves as a local playground throughout the year.
The West End has the fourth-highest density of children (0-14) in Vancouver. The Lord Roberts Elementary School and Annex are operating significantly over capacity. We cannot afford to lose a school.
NELSON PARK PLAYGROUND AND PLAZA.
The Vancouver Park Board (VPB) has officially classified the West End as a playground deficient neighbourhood. Bearing in mind that the Lord Roberts Annex is located in a park, the school playground has been equipped with a wide range of playground equipment with funds raised by the Lord Roberts Annex Parent Advisory Committee over the years and is widely used as a local playground year round. There is also a small playground in Nelson Park outside of the school grounds.
There is no way that the Vancouver School Board, Vancouver Park Board and Vancouver City Council should have allowed BC Hydro to target Nelson Park and the Lord Roberts Elementary School Annex property as its preferred location for a new Downtown substation. Public assets like Nelson Park and Lord Roberts Elementary School Annex are scarce and effectively irreplaceable public resources. They are not private assets and should not be assigned a "market value" and sold off by our local politicians. The Vancouver School Board couldn't even get that part right, selling the subsurface rights without realizing or caring that the surface rights would become worthless, as nothing can be built on top of a hydroelectric substation.
BC Hydro has tried to sell the idea of constructing a hydroelectric substation at Nelson Park as a win-win situation for us because BC Hydro will be able to increase electricity supply in downtown Vancouver and we will get two new schools and money to improve "other parks" like Cathedral Square Park.
Cathedral Square Park is home to the only underground substation that BC Hydro has built so far. It is located across from Holy Rosary Cathedral at 500 Richards Street. Before BC Hydro built the Cathedral Square Substation the property was being used for surface parking lots and low-rise commercial. It was not the location of a pre-existing public park or school. The surface of Cathedral Square Park is the roof of the substation. BC Hydro is responsible for maintaining the park and monitors electromagnetic fields at the park "to ensure strict health and safety standards". BC Hydro boasts on its website that approval of the Cathedral Square Park Substation allowed BC Hydro to "save valuable above-ground real estate for community use as a park."
Cathedral Square Park.
Here is a picture of what Cathedral Square Park looks like today.
THE FUTURE OF THE PARK AND SCHOOL IF SUBSTATION PROCEEDS
On May 15, 2018, I attended one of the early in-person public consultation meetings held at Lord Roberts Elementary School Annex to find out about the Vancouver School Board's plan to sell the property rights beneath the school to BC Hydro. We were told by BC Hydro consultants that the school would be demolished and a hydroelectric substation would be built where the school and parking lot are currently located; the substation would be built underground; it would be encased in concrete, and nothing could be built or placed on top of the concrete roof of the substation. "If" the Vancouver School Board decided to build a new school on the property, it would have to be located where the playground is now, and the new playground would have to be located on the concrete roof of the substation. The current playground equipment couldn't be moved to the concrete roof and they suggested putting the equipment in storage. When asked what could go there, they suggested that the concrete surface could be covered with artificial turf.
ARCHITECT’S VISION OF PROPOSED WEST END SUBSTATION. (BC HYDRO)
Here is the latest rendering of the potential school and school grounds:
Note that, while BC Hydro has purchased the subsurface property rights, it is proposing to construct seven-meter high ventilation towers, a third unidentified structure on the concrete playground, and a six-meter high entrance.
BC Hydro also told us it would need to dig one to three meter-wide trenches through Nelson Park to install cable corridors to connect with the rest of the BC Hydro Downtown electrical system. Two of the corridors run through the little playground and the plaza with a garden trellis and water feature. Both will have to be removed.
BC Hydro will be removing up to 83 trees from Nelson Park, including all of the trees on the Lord Roberts Annex property. Trees cannot be replanted on top of or adjacent to the cable corridors after they are installed. Most recently, BC Hydro suggested that they may be able to partially mitigate the tree removal by planting about 45 trees on the school property. It's unclear how BC Hydro will be able to plant 45 new trees on the school property after the substation is built and the Lord Roberts Annex is rebuilt beside it.
No members of the public attending that meeting - and there were about 50 of us - spoke out in favour of the sale of the Lord Roberts Annex property to build a substation. But we weren't being asked that question. What the consultants wanted to know was what would placate us. In other words, the Vancouver School Board had already effectively decided that it was accepting BC Hydro's offer. All the consultants wanted to know was, if we did support the project, what would we want in exchange.
IS THE WEST END GETTING TWO NEW SCHOOLS?
The public communications and local reporting about the sale of the Lord Roberts Annex property have emphasized that the West End community would be getting two new schools as the quid pro quo for accepting the West End Substation: a new school at Coal Harbour and a new school on the Vancouver School Board's property at Nelson Park.
As it turns out, the Vancouver School Board did not negotiate enough money to build two schools. It accepted BC Hydro's offer of the "market value" of the subsurface rights. Most of the money went to the Ministry of Education to allow the Seaside Elementary School in Coal Harbour to jump the queue and become a priority project for the Ministry of Education. That school is now scheduled to open in September, 2026. The Coal Harbour school is already over-subscribed, even though it hasn't opened yet.
Coal Harbour certainly deserves to have an elementary school. But Coal Harbour is a different catchment area than the West End. Seaside Elementary School is not a West End school. Land was set aside for an elementary school at Coal Harbour when the old rail yard was redeveloped as housing. The Province would have built a school there eventually. Directing the compensation received from BC Hydro towards the Coal Harbour school project allowed the Coal Harbour school project to jump the queue and become a priority for the Ministry of Education.
Meanwhile, there is not enough money in the kitty to allow the Lord Roberts Annex rebuild to jump the queue. The Vancouver School Board has said that it has asked the Ministry of Education to add the Lord Roberts Annex rebuild to the Ministry's priority list, so far to no avail. The Lord Roberts Annex project is in limbo. We've actually traded places with Coal Habour. West End children have priority to attend school in Coal Harbour while the substation is being constructed, but what is going to happen if a new school at Nelson Park is not funded before the West End Substation is finished construction? And how many West End parents will want to send their young children to a school built next to a massive hydroelectric substation?
DOES BC HYDRO HAVE OTHER OPTIONS?
As this process has dragged on, BC Hydro has migrated from saying that Nelson Park is their "preferred" location, to Nelson Park is the "only feasible" location for a West End substation. This simply is not the case. There are lots of locations that are technically feasible. BC Hydro has the authority under the BC Hydro and Power Authority to expropriate any property they want to maintain the electrical system. It just doesn't want to pay the money.
In BC Hydro's Initial Application to the BC Utilities Commission (available on the Utilities Commission website at BCUC.com) BC Hydro says it considered 11 sites for the new substation. BC Hydro evaluated the feasibility of at least two sites besides Nelson Park: Emery Barnes Park, and a strata property on Pendrell Street. It found both of them to be feasible. BC Hydro later dropped consideration of Emery Barnes Park, reportedly because the City wanted the full market value for the property. It subsequently made an offer to purchase the strata property building on Pendrell Street, but dropped that option when the Vancouver School Board indicated that it was interested in selling the subsurface property rights beneath the Lord Roberts Annex property. In other words, there were at least two other sites that were technically feasible, and economically feasible at the right price. BC Hydro chose not to pursue them. Stantec, the engineering firm that was retained to evaluate the original proposal to build two substations, one beneath Emery Barnes Park and one under Nelson Park made this comment in its report:
"If the concept is not approved by all parties, it is Stantec's understanding that BC Hydro will advance its traditional approach of building two above-ground indoor substations, likely within a three block radius of the proposed project locations."
BC Hydro hasn't revealed the other eight sites, but it's not difficult for a West End resident to identify other possible sites close to Nelson Park that do not involve alienating park land and wrecking two very important community amenities. The St. Paul's Hospital site at the southeast corner of Nelson Park will be vacant in a year. To date, Concord Pacific has not filed a rezoning application for the property.
Washington court, ONE OF FOUR VACANT PROPERTIES ON NELSON.
There are four vacant apartment buildings in a row on Nelson Street, starting with Washington Court at the northeast corner of Nelson Park.
There is one vacant strata building and three vacant rental buildings on either side of Barclay Street between Thurlow and Burrard close to the Dal Grauer substation.
And there is a vacant lot on the north side of Robson Street at Broughton Street that has been sitting there for about 35 years.
The market value of multi-unit residential buildings has significantly decreased since BC Hydro made an offer on the Pendrell Street strata property. Why would they not be willing to evaluate these other options given the change in the real estate climate?
WHAT CAN WEST ENDERS DO?
This process has been dragging on for so long, that it can feel like the outcome is inevitable: that our school will be torn down, our trees will be cut down, and in their place we receive the benefit of sun bathing next to a huge concrete slab in our once beautiful park. (See Cathedral Square Park.)
But there is still hope.
BC Hydro cannot commence construction of the West End Substation until the BC Utilities Commission issues a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity. BC Hydro will be telling the Utilities Commission that West End residents support the project. The truth is, we were never asked that question by BC Hydro or the Vancouver School Board. If the BC Utilities Commission receives a lot of letters from West End residents and organizations telling the Commission how important the school and the park are to our quality of life it could affect the outcome, if only to force BC Hydro, the Province and our municipal officials to live up to their promises and do right by us.
The BC Utilities Commission encourages organizations, groups and individual members of the public to share their views, opinions and insights about applications before it by providing a letter of comment here. Under the field “Proceeding name” be sure to click through to “BC Hydro CPCN for West End Substation Project”.
Letters that are sent by regular mail or dropped off are also accepted. The BC Utilities Commission is at Suite 410, 900 Howe Street, Vancouver, BC Canada V6Z 2N3.
You don't need to be registered as a party or intervenor.
Editor’s Note: For more information on the proposed substation, see this month’s “A Closer Look” by John Streit here.
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Carol Reardon is is a long-time West End resident with a Masters Degree
in City Planning from MIT and a lengthy career in Administrative law.
